Ted Ligety produced a devastating performance on the Gran Risa in Alta Badia to win his 14th World Cup Giant Slalom. This win places Ligety joint fourth on the Overall list of Giant Slalom winners and the was based on a commanding first run that Ligety felt he “had more grip than maybe any of the other racers” to carve out a lead of 2.40 seconds. Marcel Hirscher took second and Thomas Fanara placed third.
Ligety was in a class of his own yet felt that “It didn't feel like anything super crazy, but I had good grip and was able to get good early pressure and arc, but I'm surprised to get that kind of margin,” he said after the first run. “The first run was definitely confusing for me and a lot of guys as to why I was so fast,” Ligety emphasized after the second run.

By the time he came into the start gate, Ligety had already made the decision that he had to attack as normal so that he did not make a mistake and lose a lot of time. With the skiing world watching this master class, Ligety pushed out the start. Two mistakes that saw his inside hand on the snow had the watching crowd draw breath but by the time that he had crossed the finish line in the sun at the bottom of the course, Ligety had enough time to play with. This was his third win and fourth podium of the season, matching his record for last season.

With Aksel Lund Svindal battled his way down to ninth place to add more points for the Overall and Mathieu Faivre benefited from starting the second run first to place tenth, a career best result in the World Cup. Faivre had held the lead at the start of the second run until the 14th racer came down. Marcel Mathis placed sixteenth after having been in eighth after the first run.

When asked how this performance of Ligety affects the Giant Slalom World Cup, Aksel Lund Svindal, himself top of the points in the Overall, said that this shows “he is No. 1 in the world, but he's No. 1 in the world by (a huge) margin.” With many of the top Giant Slalom racers going away to lick their wounds and watch the video of Ligety, Ligety himself, admitted that there were still mistakes that he wants to iron out!